This week, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) will travel to Israel. In response to Speaker Boehner's insistence on continuing to politicize the U.S.-Israel partnership, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) demanded that the speaker stop putting politics above what is best for our alliance.

"The U.S.-Israel relationship has long benefitted from bipartisan support - as it should. However, Speaker Boehner's recent actions, especially his unprecedented and partisan invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak before Congress without consulting with Democrats or the White House, have endangered the bipartisan nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship," said Greg Rosenbaum, NJDC's chairman. "At a time when we should be focused on repairing the damage done by Republicans who seek to make Israel a partisan wedge issue, we instead see the speaker continuing to put politics ahead of what is best for the U.S.-Israel relationship. With his choice to take a new 'jab at the White House' and to further politicize this issue, the speaker is further dividing the pro-Israel community. We call on Speaker Boehner and his fellow Republicans to stop playing partisan politics and join with us to help repair the serious damage they have done."

In reporting on Speaker Boehner's trip to Israel, the Associated Press wrote that "the Republican leader's announcement...that he'll visit Israel looks like a jab at the White House," and Foreign Policy reported that "the partisan nature of the trip is hard to ignore."